GREENVISION on B.C.A.T.
Brooklyn Community Access Television
Wednesdays at 2:30pm and 10:30pm
Channels 35 and 68
Video streaming at bcat.tv (ch. 2)
Producer: Carl Lawrence
ph: 718-875-3134 Email: clawx@earthlink. net
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“We created terror among the Arabs and all the villages around.”
-Menachem Begin, former Israeli Prime Minister
Today, December 10, 2008, GREENVISION presents Part I of “Tragedy in the Holy Land-The Second Uprising”, a film by Denis Mueller of MPI Video, about the underpinnings of the wrenching conflict in Palestine leading to the second intafada.
This film presents a version of European colonialism (mainly British) that clumsily, yet ruthlessly, orchestrated the uprooting of Palestinians, long before the Nazi ‘Final Solution’ gave Zionism the adrenaline rush it needed to finally crush all direct Arab resistance. Archival footage of pastoral Arab herdsman and farmers are juxtaposed against European Jews happily building settlements on land they “purchased” from absentee landlords. Interviews with Edward Said, Noam Chomsky and other activists and historians (some who experienced the early terror first hand as children) underscore the point that the “3rd World” was thought of by Europeans as their oyster, to be devoured at will. Thus, by the turn of the century, Europeans controlled 85% of the globe’s people and resources!
Britain, France, Germany, Turkey and others wanted the region’s OIL and strategic position. The Zionists, headed by its founder, Theodore Herzl, wanted land. But how? First, in Herzl's view, the indigenous population (the Palestinians) had to go. He said, "we needed to clean out the swamps." He rightly observed that statelessness led to extreme oppression, but his solution was essentially ETHNIC CLEANSING.

The catalyst for European expansion in the Middle East and the opening for a Zionist homeland occurred in 1908, when the so-called “Young Turks” revolted against the old Ottoman (Turkish) Empire to force constitutional rule. At that time Turkey controlled all of what is now Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and the Red Sea/Persian Gulf coasts of modern Saudi Arabia. But the Turks grossly miscalculated in WW I, joining forces with Germany. They LOST!!! Britain and France were then free to carve up the region to their liking, setting up client states. The Treaty of Versailles gave Syria to France, but the rest went to Britain, who had promised both the Zionists a homeland (even though the Zionists had sided with Turkey) and the Arabs independence if they aligned themselves with Britain, which they did under the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
Seizing upon the instability, the Zionists, aided by Britain, justified their rapid expansion into Palestinian territory by devising phony land sales. It wasn’t until 1936 that these land ‘sales’ finally sparked a revolt. But, the revolt was quickly put down and the Palestinians were crushed, their leaders killed or expelled!
The Brits, in a vain attempt to quell further unrest, envisioned a partition: it roughly gave Galilee, the Jezreel Valley and the coastal plain from Acre to Tel Aviv to the Zionists. The rest went to the Arabs, except Jerusalem, which would be ruled under a British mandate. But both sides rejected it. To make matters worse, the Emir of Jordan enters the stage suddenly, colluding with the Brits to annex the West Bank for Jordan! However, Emir Abdullah’s imperial machinations pale in comparison with a much more virulent imperialist and ethnic cleanser- HITLER- who suddenly “blitzkriegs” most of Europe and The War to End All Wars is on.
The film notes (pre Fidel) Cuba, the US and Canada, among other states in the Western Hemisphere, turning away ships of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi terror! One of the most notorious, The SS St. Louis, a German cruise ship, was forbidden to land in Miami. Despite the captain’s sympathetic intentions, it was forced to return to Europe with his 937 passengers, 2/3 of them to perish in concentration camps!!
After the war, a welling up of collective guilt for such betrayals fueled the support for a Jewish refuge--a homeland. A flood of Jewish settlers entered Palestine on any ship available and the struggle of two peoples desiring the same piece of real estate began in earnest. In one infamous incident, the future Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Begin, massacres 250 Palestinians in their village, creating mass panic in the region. Village after village were attacked by terrorist units like ‘LH1’ under a program called “Plan D”. Inexplicably, few Arab states came to the rescue?
One myth this film is adamant to dispel is that the Zionists fought a ‘ David and Goliath’ type war against Arab ‘hordes’ and that the Palestinians were told by their leaders to leave voluntarily so that a combined Arab army could ‘drive the Jews into the sea’. According to this film, Begin’s units had a total of 65,000 fighters that overwhelmed the 21,000 Arab defenders and that nearly a million Palestinians were, in fact, either driven out in terror or forcibly expelled. The refugee population was ultimately confined and the destruction of their homes and the uprooting of their olive trees began (of course, a policy the Israeli military continues to this day).

Tune in to GREENVISION and decide for yourself if this version of events, from the viewpoint of the Palestinians, appears consistent with the current prison like apartheid conditions in the occupied territories. ..or just Arab propaganda.

Please come back next week for Part II of “Tragedy in the Holy Land-The Second Uprising”. Thanks for watching.
Carl Lawrence
producer
END THE OCCUPATIONS.